Musical Cribs!

How ironic. Yesterday, I blog about my sweet, sleeping babies. Today, I'm ready to pull my hair out, cry and scream...because the babies are not sleeping!

If someone were to ask me what the hardest part of having twins is, my answer would be (besides my pregnancy) one word. SLEEP! It seems like every few months, we go through a new phase. We are in the "I don't want to sleep, it's more fun to climb in and out our cribs and do what we want phase!"

My boys, of course, are TOTALLY different.

When it comes to sleep, Bryce probably is more like me. We love it! Once we go through "the nite-nite routine" with him, he typically lays on his pillow and falls right to sleep. If he struggles to fall asleep immediately, it's usually because his crazy brother is talking, jumping or doing something loud to keep him awake!

Drew, on the other hand, is more like Jimmy. He just won't give up! He doesn't want to miss out on anything! The funny thing is he likes his naps and often sleeps in later than Bryce in the mornings, but it's a struggle to get him to finally fall asleep. He is smart enough to realize that if he gives into a nap, he's going to miss out on fun play time. So, he finds every excuse in the book to stay up. "Mommy, eat!" "Mommy, Micky Mouse!" "Mommy, book!" etc, etc, etc! He has become quite manipulative. So, for the past 2 weeks, to prove that he IS NOT going to sleep, he has been crawling out of his crib at nap time. In the beginning, it would usually occur after Bryce had fallen asleep so thankfully Bryce wasn't witnessing his brother's disobedience! As frustrated as I was with Drew, I would take advantage of our time together, feed him a snack, read him a book and then he would ultimately fall asleep, on HIS time frame!

A few days before our trip to KC, Bryce was not quite ready for his nap. I had put the boys to bed but could hear the typical chatter and giggles from the baby monitor. Then it got louder. Then I hear a CRASH! BANG! WAAH! Bryce had watched his little brother crawl ever so effortlessly out of his crib so he thought he could give it a try and landed on his head... not once, but twice!

Now I've got to do something. It's turned into a huge safety issue.

So, the next day, I drive 3 hours to the big city in search of these crib tents.My cousin Marcy's little boy Dane has one and loves it. I was thrilled to find them on clearance at Toys R Us and felt so relieved that I could keep the boys zipped up and safe for many more months in their cribs. But of course, my luck, they don't fit the boys' 3-in-1 cribs...ARGH! Drew slept in Dane's crib while we were in KC and loved the tent. He would say, "Mommy, zip tent, pwease!"

Yesterday, I put the boys down for their nap. I started my usual afternoon cleanup and listened to them chatting and laughing on the monitor. It sounded like they were scheming up a plan. Well... they were! When I went to check on them, Drew had climbed into Bryce's crib and they were playing ever so nicely together. I separated them, told them to stay in their own cribs and walked out. The next time I went in, they had both climbed out of their cribs and were playing with their bedroom toys, as if it was just regular ole playtime! They got a swat and put back to bed. Things got really quiet on the monitor so I knew something was up. This time I went in to find Bryce in Drew's crib and Drew in Bryce's crib - with big smiles on their faces! They each got a timeout and put back to bed. The fourth time I went in to find them both in the same crib again! I was so FURIOUS! Are they NOT understanding me? Don't they know how much I need to get done during their 2 hour nap? Don't they know how precious naps really are?

Instead of reacting to my anger I just stood there with my arms crossed with a scowl on my face. You know the one I'm talking about. The very same one our mother's had on their faces when we did something wrong!

Bryce said, "Oh, Mommy's angwy! Dew, Mommy's angwy. Oh no, Mommy's angwy!" Pretty smart boy, I thought to myself.

Even with "timeouts" and spankings, the games continued for quite awhile longer. They thought it was so funny and didn't really mind the discipline, so I finally just had to separate them. I put Bryce in my bed and he immediately fell asleep. Imagine that! Drew stayed up another hour before falling asleep. Needless to say, I got nothing accomplished during nap time!